Re:Brussels opens the door to reviewing the ban on ICE vehic...
by ZeroGravitas on Monday October 20, 2025 @06:26AM
(#45642281)
So we've shifted the goalposts from the EU is making us poor, to the EU is offering us the chance to become richer but we've decided installing plugs is too hard so we'd rather stay poor.
Which is both pathetic and untrue. Southern, central and Easterm Europe are building the EVs and the batteries and the long tail of components for them. They are more than capable of installing some chargers and some renewables and are indeed doing so.
Infrastructure for importing and processing fossil fuels has been organically developed and it is there everywhere. The European grid and the EV charging stations aren't.
Chinese manufacturers can make cheap cars however many poorer EU countries have actual car factories in them and we probably don't want to close those either.
So either EU Car companies will buckle and make actually affordable cars and EU energy companies get economic incentives and legal help to cut through the bureaucracy of each member state or we stay with ICEs longer. Similarly many landlords in EU countries need to be incentivized to install chargers. Most working class people rent in EU now. Without home charging EVs have less economic incentives.
Without making economic and legal arrangements, forcing poorer countries to buy more expensive cars that cannot be charged is the stupid decision here.